The Last Confederate – The Story Of Robert Adams (DVD)
Picture: C Sound: C Extras: C+ Film: B-
There is
the great gag in the Looney Tunes cartoon of the plantation owner who still
thinks The Civil War is going on and is living in the past, a fact taken
advantage of by various antagonists (Bugs Bunny and Charlie Dog in
particular)with plenty of other gags to be had.
However, the real Civil War was a serious matter with some to this day still holding a grudge. Though the subject has been pretty played out
since the Ted Turner-produced Gettysburg
and the overrated Ken Burns TV mini-series documentary on the subject, the A.
Blaine Miller/Julian Adams film The Last
Confederate – The Story Of Robert Adams (2005) is an ambitious telling of
how Robert Adams became the last to surrender.
What
could have been an angry diatribe about how the county going wrong since the
end of the war and the like is instead a smart, full, nicely-paced telling of
not just a man and the war, but of The South that was, its traditions and why
there was a battle to begin with. The
South even becomes a character, one that took many people to make happen for a
low budget film. Like Barry Lyndon, many actual locations
that have been remarkably preserved were used for this shoot.
Civil War
aficionados will find this a must-see, while those interested in the subject
might want to give it a look. Adams
plays the title character, his real life distant relative and is not bad, which
applies to the rest of the cast. The
film even landed Tippi Hedren and Mickey Rooney in good supporting roles.
The anamorphically
enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is nicely shot by cinematographer M. Shawn Lewallen,
but the transfer is too soft for its own good and foils some interesting
composition. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix
is an attempt to upgrade the sound that was not recorded for multi-channel and
shows its sonic limits from its budget limits.
Maybe another crack at a remix would be a good idea. Extras include a trailer for this and other
THINKFilm releases, deleted scenes and a making of featurette that are all
interesting.
- Nicholas Sheffo
